Examples of the folding portable device include what is known as a folding mobile phone unit, constituted of an upper housing with a display screen and a lower housing with input keys connected to each other by means of a hinge mechanism, such that the upper housing and the lower housing are set to relatively rotate with respect to each other.
Such folding mobile phone unit can only assume, however, either a state that the upper housing is superposed on the lower housing (closed state), or a state that the upper housing is inclined with respect to the lower housing (open state), and therefore a folding mobile phone unit having improved relative positioning capability between the upper housing and the lower housing has been proposed, for example in JP-A No. 2006-19853.
FIGS. 12A and 13A are front views of the folding mobile phone unit disclosed in the cited document; FIG. 12B is a rear view of the same folding mobile phone unit; FIGS. 12C, 13B, 14A, 14B and 14C are side views from the right of the same folding mobile phone unit.
As shown in FIG. 12A for example, the folding mobile phone unit 500 according to the cited document includes an upper housing 510 having a display screen 501, a lower housing 520 having a plurality of data input keys 515 disposed thereon, and a bellows-type connecting member 530 that connects the upper housing 510 and the lower housing 520.
The bellows-type connecting member 530 is made of a flexible synthetic resin, and hence has expandability and bendability.
Because of the expandability of the bellows-type connecting member 530, the bellows-type connecting member 530 can be expanded so as to locate the upper housing 510 and the lower housing 520 farther away from each other, as shown in FIGS. 12A, 12B and 12C. The bellows-type connecting member 530 can also be compressed as shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B, so that the upper housing 510 and the lower housing 520 are located close to each other.
Further, because of the bendability of the bellows-type connecting member 530, the bellows-type connecting member 530 can be bent so as to fold the folding mobile phone unit 500 from the state shown in FIG. 14B into the state shown in FIGS. 14A and 14C, such that the upper housing 510 and the lower housing 520 are superposed on each other.
FIGS. 15A, 15B and 15C are vertical cross-sectional views showing an internal structure of the folding mobile phone unit 500.
As shown in FIGS. 15A, 15B and 15C, the bellows-type connecting member 530 is of a hollow structure, and includes therein a flexible printed circuit board 540 that electrically connects the upper housing 510 and the lower housing 520. The flexible printed circuit board 540 can be expanded, compressed and bent in accordance with such motions of the bellows-type connecting member 530, to thereby maintain the electrical connection between the upper housing 510 and the lower housing 520.
[Patented document 1] JP-A No. 2006-019853